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Galchenyuk at Center


Trizzak

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First post!

Why don't they try DD on the wing? I don't see him as the ideal top line center, but I also don't think the habs would get close to his full value in a trade, and it may be a bit too early to look at trading Plecks.

Edit: Once Galchenyuk earns a spot at center, of course. He still has a lot to prove.

Edited by HabsCollective
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I agree in general, but I'm a bit leery of everyone's default third line (Bourque, Eller, Sekac). Not one player in that configuration can be considered in any respect reliable. The rest of the lineup looks pretty solid, assuming that the adjusted D is equal to or better than what we saw last season.

I think we're going to see Dale Weise on that line. Somebody has to be "chase" in "dump and chase."

As for Sekac...

He might make it, but when you look at the forwards who come over from Europe, from Jiri Dopita all the way up to Carl Soderbergh, expectations need to be managed. I expect about 20-25 points max.

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First post!

Why don't they try DD on the wing? I don't see him as the ideal top line center, but I also don't think the habs would get close to his full value in a trade, and it may be a bit too early to look at trading Plecks.

Edit: Once Galchenyuk earns a spot at center, of course. He still has a lot to prove.

DD was 32nd highest scoring centre in NHL (on a low scoring team) so hard to say he isnt an OK top 2 centre. (weak #1, very good #2)

Will be interesting to see how competition at centre plays out.

Can Galchenyuk win a faceoff or play a 200 foot game? I would think he will be more 'ready' this year, but will they let him struggle and move one of current centres to the wing? Just cant see it happening.

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Since this seems to be the hot topic in other threads, may as well give it it's own...

Assuming Galchenyuk is our future #1 center, with center also currently being our deepest position, does someone need to vacate that spot this season for Galchenyuk to assume the role?

I would not say that center is our deepest position. Probably crowded, but not deep. Let's face it, DD would not be on the 1st line with a solid team. Neither Plekanec. DD is good enough for the 2nd line while Plex would be more useful on the 3rd. In fact there is no top notch offensive center on this team. Of course Chucky has the potential, but he has to be tested.

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Its funny how many people put Eller ahead of Plekanec on the depth chart and believe Eller can be the matchup centre and we should ship Plek away.

Eller is a guy who had a good first 2 weeks.... an awful 6 months.... and then a good 6 weeks in the playoffs.

For some that 6 weeks seems enough to dislodge Pleks.

We saw Bourque do basically the same thing, and no one has faith in Bourque (and rightly so), but with Eller we do. Eller hasn't shown consistency in 4 years here.T

To me, I move Eller to the wing to make room for Galchenyuk

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You take your top faceoff centre and put him on the wing? Interesting?

Maybe Malhotra can give Galchenyuk some tips in the circle, but Plekanec/Lapointe/Moan would need to really tutor him on his defense.

Should be interesting however it plays out and I think all expect Galchenyuk to be 'better' all-round this fall.

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First post!

Why don't they try DD on the wing? I don't see him as the ideal top line center, but I also don't think the habs would get close to his full value in a trade, and it may be a bit too early to look at trading Plecks.

Edit: Once Galchenyuk earns a spot at center, of course. He still has a lot to prove.

Too weak and not fast enough to play on the wing.

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In the habs depth structure I don't think it's about who is #2 and #3C. I just think plex thrives more on the ice when put in a defensive role on a shut down line rather then an offensive on (please don't remind me of his breakout season back in 07 cause that was ages ago). I for one would like to see the EGG line re-united as an offense minded line. Last year they clicked early but were broken up to try and get patch and DD going... Hopefully paranteau can do that and the kids can take the next step as well

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We will be running three scoring lines. This has been Therrien's MO since he got there. It's just that the Patches-DD line will be more offence than defence, the Plek line will be more defence than offence and the third line will probably lean more for offence since it might end up with an Eller and/or Galchenyuk on it.

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I think you are undervaluing Plekanec and as other GMs have said, he is one of most underrated players in league and would love to add him to their team.

I remember commentators on american telecast for some US team were interviewing GM and asked why their PP has sucked in game and he said it is mostly due to being shutdown by Plekanec and he went on to sing the praises of Tomas (Dallas GM I think it was?).

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Pleks continues to be just appallingly under-appreciated by many fans. As Commandant observed, the whole - eternally recurring - idea that Eller makes him redundant is sheer, unadulterated wishful thinking. Pleks does everything out there (OK, so he's not physical) and has been Mr. Consistency for us year after year after year, delivering steady offence while shutting down other teams' top C, usually while playing with a comically rotating cast of line-mates (notice that HE doesn't need excuses about line-mates? Unlike all the Eller defenders, for whom his dismal output is always someone else's fault). Eller is almost the exact opposite of Pleks, at least at this point in his career: Mr. Unreliable, whose 20 great games (including playoffs) somehow give fans amnesia about the other 70 games when he is mediocrity personified.

You know who else is under-appreciated? Desharnais. People keep declaiming from the hilltops that he is not a #1 C. Well, no shite, Sherlock. And yeah, he's small and therefore prone to losing battles in his own end. So great, he isn't Ryan Getzlaf. But after that atrocious first 20 games he delivered nearly point-per-game offence. And our top W has consistently said over the years that he plays best when paired with DD; in other words, DD makes Patches better. Instead of fantasizing about the day when DD will become redundant - which probably will arrive as Galy develops - we should at least recognize that he is a damned good little player in his own right and likely to be a valuable contributor until the day arrives when Galy can take a full-time C role.

I notice a lot of the Pleks/DD criticism comes from folks that are fond of talking in terms of line rankings (#1 line, #2 line, #3 line, etc.). But this whole mode of thinking is of marginal application to our team, which as Machine pointed out, is constructed to roll three more-or-less equal lines. You can say this is a bad model, but it sure seems to be working so far.

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I'm clearly not undervaluing plex... simply saying were i would employ him to have optimum balance throughout our line up. come on an elite shut down centre in the league able to pot 20+ on the 3rd line??? thats fantastic and what cup teams are made of......technically saying to employ him in a role similar to guy carbonneau is a tribute and compliment to plex as Guy was one of my all time favourite habs growing up......

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on the eller topic... I must stress that I'm not putting him above plex merely trying to put them both in situations that can make us better and more balanced. i just think eller should be given a scoring role this season and let plex have the shutdown role..... eller is going into this season pretty much at the same age and time it took plex to show up at the NHL level. i think its his year to finally take the next step......

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on the eller topic... I must stress that I'm not putting him above plex merely trying to put them both in situations that can make us better and more balanced. i just think eller should be given a scoring role this season and let plex have the shutdown role..... eller is going into this season pretty much at the same age and time it took plex to show up at the NHL level. i think its his year to finally take the next step......

Well, I hope so. For all that I rag on him, there's no denying his potential and that, if he fulfills that potential, he can become an extremely valuable piece for us: effectively Plekanec's successor, with more size.

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Well, I hope so. For all that I rag on him, there's no denying his potential and that, if he fulfills that potential, he can become an extremely valuable piece for us: effectively Plekanec's successor, with more size.

I'd love to see that.

However, so far I haven't seen anything from Eller to indicate he won't be another in a long line of Habs forwards since 1994 with "potential" that has never shown up, either on the scoresheet, or even in harder to rate (numerically) skills, over the majority of a full season.

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I'd love to see that.

However, so far I haven't seen anything from Eller to indicate he won't be another in a long line of Habs forwards since 1994 with "potential" that has never shown up, either on the scoresheet, or even in harder to rate (numerically) skills, over the majority of a full season.

Well, that's my fear as well. Like you, I've just seen too many of these guys come and go to be solidly optimistic about how Eller will pan out. It looked like he was on the right track two years ago, getting stronger as the season wore on, then starting 2013-14 absolutely on fire; but his pathetic reversion back to his old ways for the rest of the year, until the playoffs, really has to throw cold water on any unqualified optimism about him. He just may not have the royal jelly. This year should tell us a lot IMHO, because he's getting to the point where one can reasonably demand that he start putting it together. No more of this "just happy to be here" passenger Lars.

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I love it when players from countries without a dominant hockey program make it at the NHL level. The fact that Eller is from Denmark makes me pull for him even more. Only nine players born in Denmark have ever made it to the NHL. I'd love Eller to become the first ever bonafide Danish NHL star player.

(I'm partly of Norwegian descent myself; my paternal grandmother was born in Oslo. I take Mats Zuccarello in every hockey pool I can.)

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does anyone else think that plekanics may become the next captain? I wouldn't mind. i'm actually pulling for prust, but it's hard to put that kind of responsibility on someone who's out of the lineup so often. I think that, when healthy, prust provides leadership much like a dustin brown in la....but that damn shoulder!

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Its funny how many people put Eller ahead of Plekanec on the depth chart and believe Eller can be the matchup centre and we should ship Plek away.

Eller is a guy who had a good first 2 weeks.... an awful 6 months.... and then a good 6 weeks in the playoffs.

For some that 6 weeks seems enough to dislodge Pleks.

We saw Bourque do basically the same thing, and no one has faith in Bourque (and rightly so), but with Eller we do. Eller hasn't shown consistency in 4 years here.T

To me, I move Eller to the wing to make room for Galchenyuk

I've talked about the Eller fascination here before. He's young, he does well at the start of the season and the end of the season when fans are paying the most attention, and he's big. He's someone you want to root for, definitely. But does anyone remember games 55-75 when he was averaging two offensive zone penalties a week?

I also think certain "types" of players are given more and less scrutiny/credit that others.

More-

+ Players with rough postseason stats

+ Europeans

+ Five foot players

+ The endless carping about #1 defensemen and centers

Less-

+ Rookies

+ Players with size

+ Fighters. Not goons, but guys who fight 2-7 ideas are valued more than some Presidents

+ Canadians

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To me he's Andrei Kostitsyn 2.0 They are in no way the same players but the way people protect/make excuses Eller is the same way they protected Andrei. "Lars Eller has bad linemates" is the old "Andrei is playing the wrong wing" excuse. It's funny because Andrei Kostitsyn's last good games in Montreal were on Lars Eller's wing.

It's pretty funny how all the Habs fans making excuses for Lars Eller weren't saying, "Lars has bad linemates!" when he was scoring in the playoffs.

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Guest Stogey24

To me he's Andrei Kostitsyn 2.0 They are in no way the same players but the way people protect/make excuses Eller is the same way they protected Andrei. "Lars Eller has bad linemates" is the old "Andrei is playing the wrong wing" excuse. It's funny because Andrei Kostitsyn's last good games in Montreal were on Lars Eller's wing.

It's pretty funny how all the Habs fans making excuses for Lars Eller weren't saying, "Lars has bad linemates!" when he was scoring in the playoffs.

Well Bourque caught fire and started to drive the net in the playoffs... so Eller basically did have a good line mate for 17 games and look what happened.
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It's pretty funny how all the Habs fans making excuses for Lars Eller weren't saying, "Lars has bad linemates!" when he was scoring in the playoffs.

Ah, but what happened to his linemate Bourque in the playoffs? He actually showed up.You could argue that the minute his linemate a starting actually finishing and making plays, Eller's production skyrocketed. Eller isn't Crosby, he needs to be surrounded by talent right now. And Bourque oozes talent about 10 % of the time. The other 90% he's sucking it all up

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Ah, but what happened to his linemate Bourque in the playoffs? He actually showed up.You could argue that the minute his linemate a starting actually finishing and making plays, Eller's production skyrocketed. Eller isn't Crosby, he needs to be surrounded by talent right now. And Bourque oozes talent about 10 % of the time. The other 90% he's sucking it all up

Right, but what people miss is that when the EGG line was broken up, he still had Alex Galchenyuk. Galchenyuk was moved off of his line in January and moved to Plekanec and then got hurt. So basically, Galchenyuk wasn't good enough?

Montreal plays a three line attack. I find it silly we need to put Pacioretty and Gallagher with Eller just because. Especially since the games Eller and Patches played together they had less chemistry than Koivu and Kovalev.

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